Weird tire wear

We've put a lot of miles on the new Elkmont recently (across the continent and back), and I just noticed that one of the tires (Marathon 15", passenger/door side) has uniformly high wear on the outside corner of the tread. The rest of the tread and inside corner is fine. The other tire is fine. The pressure is fine (50psi) and always has been (I check frequently).

There's no place inside the wheel well showing signs of rubbing. Clearances seem fine. The trailer's GAWR is not exceeded, and I would expect more of the weight on the other side anyway, with the dual batteries and water tank.

It's not sidewall wear as you might expect from rubbing against the curb, and it's very uniform, so I wouldn't think the wheel balance would be off. Last time I checked, there were balance weights on the back of the wheels.

Since I just noticed it, could this be something recent? Maybe something got stuck in the wheel well?

Or is there some other possibility?

Took another look and compared tread depths of the two tires. The one with the high corner wear also has quite a bit more wear across the tread.

So now I think I'm wrong about side to side weight distribution. Maybe the passenger/door side does have more weight, from all the kitchen cupboards, frig, sun shade, water heater and water pressure tank. The other side has the main water tank (and batteries), but we usually drain all the water from it before traveling.

Although I like the softer/quieter ride at 50psi, I'll try raising the heavy (?) side tire to 65psi to preserve the tire.

Would like to weigh each side but don't know where I can get that done. The CAT scales I've been using will not work ...

[Keith Wire]

Brulaz,

Would like to weigh each side but don't know where I can get that done. The CAT scales I've been using will not work ...

I see you are in Canada. Are you in a big city or a town where there is a grain elevator? We are in a small town and, although I haven't done it yet, I talked to the fellows at the elevator and they said "sure bring it over"...

Also, when I read your first message I wondered if it was possible that the axle wasn't welded to the frame straight? Have you measured from the tongue to the axle on both sides?

Keith

Well, we just passed all sorts of grain elevators (in both Canada and the US) on our trip, but I didn't notice this problem until one day from home in Ontario. Even the scale at our local municipal dump station is a full axle scale with no way to put just one wheel on it. I'll keep looking though ...

About the axle and frame (J&B also mentioned this), I'll check when we get back. But I would expect to also be getting odd wear on the other tire if something was not true there. But it's in very good shape.

Hmmm Bruce, it does sound like something is wrong, maybe with the camber, on that side. There may be a possibility of something being bent there, since it is on the outside.

Just a side note, do you use a weight distribution hitch?

Yes, we do have a WDH with 800# spring bars. Last time I checked, it was moving 200# off the hitch to the rear axle.

I also just checked the distance from the frame to ground at the tire. The side with the worn tire is roughly 1" lower than the other. I'll check it again after we unload the trailer tomorrow.

[Mr. Adventure]

The Cat scale I recently weighed at had plenty of pavement on one side, so getting weights on one side would have worked great. So I guess they're not all the same.

Does the trailer seem to tow in a straight line?

Have you considered having the tires re-balanced and inspected by a reliable tire shop?

While you are doing that you might as well rotate them to even out the wear.

[Wavery]

It is normal for trailer tires to wear more on the curb side of the trailer.

Highways are sloped for water run-off. Trailers mostly tow in the right lane which would leave the right side tire down-hill, taking more weight and more drag (as the TV tries to tow the trailer "up-hill").

Trailers and other vehicles with 4-wheels will show ~less of this because they "Track" better on the slope. A single axle (2 wheel) trailer will constantly gravitate towards the low side.

As stated by the previous poster, rotate the tires.

OK. I'll keep a look out for cat scales where I can just measure one wheel at a time.

I went back and checked the tread wear difference; it's only 1 mm diff in the centre. And measured more accurately the distance difference from axle to frame: 1.5cm. These #'s don't seem too bad after all.

Also checked the axle's relationship to the frame and it seems pretty true, as best I could tell +- 1 cm.

Wayne's remarks sound about right. At least I hope the wear is "normal" after about 15,000 km. I also noticed that a lot poorly maintained highways have some pretty deep ruts on the right side of the right lane which would help explain the edge wear.

So I'll rotate, and probably up the pressure to 65psi on both. That will mean a lot more banging in trailer, but hopefully might extend the tire life.

These Marathons are doing pretty well otherwise.